RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Chris Calloway just posted the second end-all post in this thread, which 
is a pretty damn high number for us, so there you go. Yet it continues.

Setting aside the correctness of everything that both 3.2.3 and CLO 
spoke about this issue, I do find it curious that people were apparently 
unwilling to dance to LeTigre. I haven't heard the new album -- I'm 
sorry, but Kathleen Hanna on Universal? I'll just pretend she's dead 
instead, OK? -- but certainly the few times that I've been pressed to 
program what passed loosely for a dance party, LeTigre certainly made 
the cut. And I think people danced. I wasn't really paying attention.

There has been speculation about the sheer mental exhaustion that comes 
from overexposure to so many great bands. I mean, sure, LeTigre may be 
great now, but are they better than that one time at the Lizard and 
Snake back in 199_? Just sorting through the various qualifiers & 
determining where any given show fits within the hierarchy of lifetime 
shows attended can take most of the evening, leaving precious few 
moments for dancing.

Certainly I have seen many many more booties shaking at various 
non-rockclub dance parties, even some booties belonging to supposedly 
notorious non-dancers. Of course, generally speaking it's hard to get 
people to start dancing until the DJ plays "Push It"; maybe bands should 
try that.

Ultimately, Calloway pegged it completely when he said, simply enough, 
that people will dance if the music makes them want to dance. I don't 
think there's *anybody* standing on the sidelines saying "fuck man, this 
beat is SOOOO KILLER and I'd love to be dancing right now, but social 
mores forbid it."

And if they are, well, they have only themselves to blame. I myself 
dance when I feel like it, and I hardly feel the need to cop to any 
responsibility for anybody else in that area.

If other people can't get some perceived peer-pressure monkey off their 
backs, perhaps they need to go back to high school and try a little 
harder to get ostracized, so they can properly get over that shit & move 
on.

Maybe that's it: I blame these giant 3000-student high schools, where 
even the outcast kids wind up in with a peer group that numbers in the 
dozens, if not hundreds.

It always comes down to The Man, don't it?

Ross

Mary Anne Barckhoff wrote:
> --- clo AT nc.rr.com wrote:
>
> >   But seriously - what's the deal with the dancing
> > or not dancing at
> > shows thing?   I've heard this complaint over and
> > over again.    To
> > people on the periphery of the music scene it seems
> > to typify what they
> > don't like about going to local shows.    It's kind
> > of a strange thing
> > to fixate on, don't ya think?   Am I crazy or has
> > anyone else heard
> > this criticism?   Just curious.
>
>
> ALL the time.  In fact, I just had a conversation
> about it last nite with a guy who moved here about 2
> years ago.  He brought it up, not me!  And, apparently
> the lack of dancing is distasteful to him. 
> Specifically, he was referring to the LeTigre show and
> he quoted LeTigre as proclaiming that their music is
> for people  to dance to.  He was baffled as to why
> Chapel Hillians wouldn't oblige.  
>
> I just crossed my arms and nodded (heh!).
>
> mab
>
> Viva la Venus website: http://www.vivalavenus.com
> Little Miss Messy website: http://www.littlemissmessy.net
>
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